Chapter 931： Hans Leighton's Reform

Chapter 931 Hans Layton’s Reform

November 1897.

Mayor Hans Layton convened a meeting with several state-owned factory leaders and dozens of reasonably capable workshop managers in the city.

Although many workshops are small in scale, in countries like East Africa, they are also part of the state-owned capital. Except for a few large state-owned factories, these small workshops are enterprises directly led by Maputo City. In other words, state-owned large factories The factory is a state-owned enterprise, and these handicraft workshops are municipal enterprises, but they are essentially the same, except that the state-owned enterprises do not necessarily depend on the face of Maputo City. Behind them, they also involve relationships with the province and even central departments.

“Mayor Hans Layton, I wonder why you called us, the main factory directors and management of Maputo City, here?” the director of Maputo City Power Plant first asked.

"Ahem, I'm calling you to this meeting this time. I mainly hope that everyone will cooperate sincerely and make their own contributions to the development of Maputo City. After all, everyone knows that our Maputo City is poor! If we don't unite, In the future, Maputo City will only be in a disadvantageous position in competition with other cities, which is not good news for all of us.”

"Of course we know this, but if the state doesn't provide resources and indicators, we won't be able to expand even if we want to. After all, Maputo is such a big city with so many citizens, so we can't produce more electricity and waste it!" said the director of Maputo City Power Plant.

“That’s right, the reason why we can build factories is due to the promotion of major national policies, such as electricity, tap water, and timber, which are all subject to quotas.”

Under Portuguese rule, Maputo had no electricity at all. Things such as running water were only newly established under the rule of East Africa. After all, East Africa developed the electric power industry and promoted the quality of urban life. Industries related to people's livelihood are important to everyone. Standard in the city.

Hans Layton knocked on the table and said: "Of course I understand your difficulties, but opportunities don't just sit around and wait, but should be found and grasped by oneself. This is also an important content of our meeting, which is to transform the current situation." The ideological concept of urban economic development.”

"As we all know, although East Africa's economic development has many rules and regulations, it is not without room for activity. Why are the economies of coastal cities like Dar es Salaam and Mombasa prosperous? In addition to geographical and policy advantages, subjective initiative is equally important. , so we in Maputo City must also learn to find opportunities on our own, so that we can break down economic barriers and catch up with other cities.”

Someone retorted: "Mr. Mayor, what you said makes sense, but we don't have enough contacts and resources to realize it! If we insist on increasing production capacity, this is simple, but how to solve the problem of product sales?"

Hans Layton: "Well said, this is indeed a problem for inland areas, but our city of Maputo is a coastal city after all, so the situation is different from that of inland cities. Coastal cities serve as windows for the East African economy. Then there will be opportunities to communicate with the outside world, so this time the city government specially invited a group of professionals to help you get out of this dilemma."

Then at Hans Layton’s signal, the secretary invited a group of people in suits and ties into the conference room.

"This is Mr. Wilco, director of the Maputo branch of Hechingen Foreign Economic and Trade Company. He is mainly responsible for coordinating the export work of Hechingen Foreign Economic and Trade Company in this city." Hans Leiden Introduced to everyone.

“This is Mr. Greville from Portugal. He used to do import business in Mozambique all year round.”

…”

With Hans Layton’s introduction, everyone in the conference room knew that these were “reinforcements” brought by Hans Layton and the Maputo government. "Why should I invite these business elites here? The purpose is very simple, that is, the Maputo City Government intends to cooperate with you, and our government will complete the matchmaking to help you find sales outlets and markets. In the same way, we can also solve the problem of raw materials. Our company in Maputo City is responsible for production and fulfilling orders.”

Most of the merchants invited by Hans Layton were Portuguese. After all, as a former Portuguese colony, Maputo City had the deepest cooperation with the Portuguese.

This is very different from the city of Beira. Cities such as Beira, with the help of the central government, attracted a large number of investments from German businessmen, but Maputo did not catch up with this train.

So Hans Layton turned his attention to the Portuguese. Even though Portugal's local economy was in a mess, it was mainly caused by the government's misbehavior. However, Portugal's businessmen were not weak. After all, during the former Portuguese colonial empire, Portugal's commercial activities were all over the world. everywhere.

The current Portuguese private business community is also a skinny camel bigger than a horse, not to mention that colonial independence may not be able to get rid of the influence of the original sovereign country.

Among them, the most typical one is Brazil. Brazilian business groups have a deep relationship with Portugal, and Brazil is undoubtedly a big market. Therefore, if the Brazilian market can be opened with the help of the Portuguese, it will be helpful to the city of Maputo. Absolutely huge.

Hanslayton said: “I plan to establish a special economic office in this city. In order to promote the economic development of Maputo City, this office will be responsible for negotiating with domestic and foreign businessmen, and then carry out plans through Maputo companies. external production activities.”

“Of course, the premise is to give priority to completing the planned production tasks, and on this basis, join the international market competition and promote the industrial and commercial development of Maputo City.”

Hans Layton creatively proposed the concepts of "planned" and "unplanned". Of course, many managers of large state-owned factories have doubts about this. After all, in their view, completing the superior target tasks is enough. Necessary to cause trouble.

Of course, Hans Layton did not expect that these "big factory leaders" would not be able to command you. Other city-owned enterprises are always under the overall management of Hans Layton.

It is said that he said to the leadership of municipal enterprises: "Municipal enterprises are small in scale and have low production efficiency, so I decided to integrate resources of municipal enterprises in the city. For example, we have four lumber factories in Maputo. After the integration is completed, Becoming a company, with a guarantee from the city government and a loan from the Bank of Hechingen, we will purchase a batch of advanced equipment, increase production, and expand the production line. Finally, Mr. Greville and others will contact buyers for sales..."

In Hansladen's view, these small workshops have a group of skilled workers, but lack financial and equipment support. They can never develop and grow by relying on them alone, so the city government first integrates them into a large factory. , and then improve the tools and equipment, so that a municipal enterprise can be formed that is not bad in scale, and is not bad compared with the general state-owned enterprises.

Moreover, the management rights of such enterprises are mainly in the hands of the municipal government, which makes it easier for them to manage the economic governance and optimize resources of Maputo City. Only when they make money can they further carry out all-round transformation of Maputo City.

After all, Hans Layton could not be content with staying put in "Maputo City", a city that was "abandoned" by East Africa. After all, according to the status of the original Maputo in Mozambique, the development after Maputo was merged into East Africa Judging from history, it is actually not taken seriously.

Tete City, Beira City, Quelimane City, etc. in the north, and even Xinxiang City enjoy more policies than Maputo City, and Maputo City’s new round of development opportunities is still the result of provincial allocation.

(End of this chapter)